Class 3 DSC
Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate:
The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for use of Digital Signatures on the documents submitted in electronic form in order to ensure the security and authenticity of the documents filed electronically. This is the only secure and authentic way that a document can be submitted electronically. As such, all filings done by the companies under MCA21 e-Governance programme are required to be filed with the use of Digital Signatures by the person authorised to sign the documents.
A Digital Signature Certificate, like hand written signature, establishes the identity of the sender filing the documents through internet which sender cannot revoke or deny. Accordingly, Digital Signature Certificate is a digital equivalent of a hand written signature which has an extra data attached electronically to any message or a document.
As organizations move away from paper documents with ink signatures or authenticity stamps, digital signatures can provide added assurances of the evidence to provenance, identity, and status of an electronic document as well as acknowledging informed consent and approval by a signatory.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has stipulated a Class-III certificate for e-filings under MCA21. A person who already has the specified DSC for any other application can use the same for filings under MCA21 and is not required to obtain a fresh DSC